1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle door hinge device that supports a door for opening and closing a door opening or a tail gate of an automobile or the like. The present invention particularly relates to an improvement in a checker-equipped door hinge device for vehicle, comprising: a first bracket fixed to one of a body and a door; a second bracket fixed to the other of the body and the door; a hinge pin connecting the first and second brackets to each other while allowing the brackets to be relatively rotatable; an inner cylinder connected integrally to the first bracket and disposed coaxially with the hinge pin; an outer cylinder connected integrally to the second bracket and disposed so as to surround the inner cylinder in a rotatable manner relative to the inner cylinder; and a checking-force generating mechanism provided between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder and generating a checking force against the door at a predetermined opening position of the door. In the checker-equipped door hinge device for vehicle, the checking-force generating mechanism includes: holding members attached to one of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder and arranged in a peripheral direction, the holding members being capable of moving toward and from the other of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder; and elastic members respectively biasing the holding members toward the other of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder. Detent rollers are rotatably held respectively in holding grooves formed axially respectively in the holding members, and are capable of moving in a rotational manner on a peripheral surface of the other of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder. A plurality of detent grooves are provided in the peripheral surface of the other of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder, and the detent rollers are capable of holding the door in a snapping manner at a plurality of predetermined positions, respectively, by biasing forces of the biasing members causing the detent rollers to engage the detent grooves, respectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a checker-equipped door hinge device for vehicle has already been known as disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,056.
In such a checker-equipped door hinge device for vehicle, in order to obtain an enough checking force at each of the positions of the door, including a fully closing position, a predetermined intermediate-opening position, and a fully opening position, a load needs to be applied to an elastic member through a holding member even in a state where a detent roller is engaged with a corresponding detent groove at each of the positions of the door.
However, in assembling such a checker-equipped door hinge device, the detent roller being inserted into the holding groove with a load applied to the elastic member is subjected to an extremely large insertion resistance; thereby the assembling is not easy without using a special assembling equipment.